Album: Cold Fact (1970)

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• Sugar man, won't you hurry?
  'Cause I'm tired of these scenes
  For a blue coin, won't you bring back
  All those colors to my dreams?
  
  Silver magic ships you carry
  Jumpers, coke, sweet Mary Jane
  
  Sugar man met a false friend
  On a lonely dusty road
  Lost my heart when I found it
  It had turned to dead black coal
  
  Silver magic ships you carry
  Jumpers, coke, sweet Mary Jane
  
  Sugar man, you're the answer
  That makes my questions disappear
  Sugar man, 'cause I'm weary
  Of those double games I hear
  
  Sugar man, sugar man, sugar man, sugar man
  Sugar man, sugar man, sugar man
  
  Sugar man, won't you hurry?
  'Cause I'm tired of these scenes
  For a blue coin, won't you bring back
  All those colors to my dreams?
  
  Silver magic ships you carry
  Jumpers, coke, sweet Mary Jane
  
  Sugar man met a false friend
  On a lonely dusty road
  Lost my heart when I found it
  It had turned to dead black coal
  
  Silver magic ships you carry
  Jumpers, coke, sweet Mary Jane
  
  Sugar man, you're the answer
  That makes my questions disappear Writer/s: Sixto Diaz Rodriguez
  Publisher: Universal Music Publishing Group
  Lyrics licensed and provided by LyricFind

Comments: 13

• Mike From Canada from Hamilton, Ontario CanadaLady Jennifer from Engand got it right. Sailing ships are the "silver is the metal foil on which the heroin is heated and the smoke (which is inhaled) is analogous to the smoke from old ships chimneys"
• Jon from AustraliaSmall amounts of drugs are commonly wrapped in aluminium foil for sale.
  "Silver magic ships, you carry"
• Lady Jennifer from EnglandSilver magic ships you carry
  Jumpers, coke, sweet Mary Jane
  
  Nobody really knows what the "silver magic ships" represent, but the "jumpers" are amphetamines, the "coke" is cocaine, and "sweet Mary Jane" is marijuana. It's a very bleak tale about being in the throes of addiction - the "Sugar Man" is a false friend who will turn your heart to dead black coal.
  -------------------------------------------------------------------
  
  The "Sugar Man" is a false friend and also a Pusher (dealer).
  The "silver magic ships" refer to the "Chasing the Dragon" method of taking heroin. The silver is the metal foil on which the heroin is heated and the smoke (which is inhaled) is analogous to the smoke from old ships chimneys.
• Dale from Zushi, JapanRodriguez first album, Cold Fact, was incredibly popular in Australia, Nee Zealand & South Africa from the 1970s, but there was an aura of mystery surrounding the musician. When I found out many years later that he was virtually unknown in the US, I found it hard to believe that such a talented and successful musician in other countries could be ignored in his homeland. Thankfully the Academy Award winning documentary Searching For Sugarman enabled the rest of the world to appreciate his amazing music 40 years after it was recorded. Jesus Sixto Diaz-Rodriguez died on August 8, 2023 ... but his music will live forever.
• Jonathan Socolow from New YorkThe Silver Magic Ships are metallic apothecary scales -- which happen to be in the shape of sailboats -- used to measure drugs for sale . The song is about the anticipation (hurry) of buying (blue coin) drugs. The drugs are weighed right before sale which is the correct order they appear in the song.
• Jason from VietnamAll opinions are possibly correct but mine is the "Silver magic ships" may be the needles usd to inject narcotics
• LarryThe ship the silver ship stands for. heroine in a spoon
• James from PhoenixI'm going with the idea that the silver magic ships are smuggler planes.
  Also, the first time I heard this song was as a beautiful cover by the Liverpool group 'MonaLisa Twins' on YouTube. That led me to the grittier Sixto Rodriguez version.
• Barry from Gloucester, England. C'mon guys. Jeez, I was listening to Rodriguez from the mid-seventies onwards, and as far as I was concerned, and still am incidentally, "silver magic ships" were the aircraft of the time, that brought the "jumpers, coke, sweet Mary Jane".
• Andy from Derbyshire Silver magic ships are trips
  
• Dee from Ljubljana, SiI think I got the "silver magic ships" right the first time I listened to the song and I'm not even a drug user :) Tin foil packages?
• Another South African from South AfricaI hope one of the big Hollywood studios will pickup the story of Rodriquez someday. He was a failed musician only to found out decades later he had rock star status in the isolated South Africa. One of those, true is stranger than fiction stories.
• Slr from South AfricaI believe that "silver magic ship" is the teaspoon used when injecting drugs like amphetamines etc

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